Zac Efron Confirms Condomgate...and His Conversation About It with Matt Lauer Is More Painful Than the Sex Talk You Had With Your Parents

One time when I was walking down Seventh Avenue in New York City on the way to work, I reached into my purse to grab something and, with whatever it was I pulled out, a tampon followed, shooting through the air in slow motion into a crowd of my fellow pedestrians. There I was on a jam-packed city sidewalk, pre-morning coffee, and I was so mortified and didn't know what to do that I pretended it wasn't mine and kept moving, racing, from the scene. The whole event clearly still haunts me, which is why I feel for Zac Efron during what is now know as--dun, dun, dun--Condomgate.

On the red carpet at the premiere of Lorax, Zac casually strolled up in front of where the photographers were stationed and took his hand out of his pocket to pose. However, he had a condom in one of his pockets and accidentally pulled it out and dropped it right there in front of hundreds of shutterbugs. He was much cooler about it than I was--swooping down to pick it up (I still regret being a tampon litterbug!)--sticking it back into his pants with a laugh and then striking a pose.

Earlier today, Zac was promoting the movie on the Today show and Matt Lauer actually went there and asked about the condom controversy in what has to be one of the more awkward moments in morning TV. “You want to take me through what happened?” Matt asked. Zac's good-natured reply? “I don’t want to take you through it.”

The High School Musical alum, who is now 24, ended up being a great sport about the whole thing, joking: “I never really had a pocket-checking policy prior to going on the red carpet before, but now we fully instated one." He called his unplanned protection promotion "a great message to add to the many messages of the film."

I think Zac handled it as best he could--he gets bonus points for being funny!--with seasoned newsman Matt the more nervous of the two. It took him a while get out the word condom. He kept hinting at it but not actually saying it, which prompted Zac to teasingly call him out: "It was really hard for you to say." Matt actually reminded me of a parent having an uncomfortable sex talk with his kid, replying: "No it wasn't. I think it gives you credit. I mean... Ya know... Uh... Better to be safe than sorry, right?"

Tell Me What YOU Think: Did Zac do a good job dealing with the rubber controversy? (I think he did...and maybe he'll even get a lucrative condom endorsement out of it. A hot young star promoting safe sex isn't a bad thing.) And feel free to share your personal embarrassing moments to make me feel slightly better about my flying tampon story.